JPMorgan Chase opens Kenya office after 12-year regulatory hitch

America’s biggest bank JPMorgan Chase has ended a 12-year wait for final approval to open an office in Kenya in the wake of a regulatory hitch that blocked its Nairobi operations and slowed the lender's expansion in Africa.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which on Monday granted the banking giant the final nod to set up a representative office in the country, had first issued the conglomerate with a permit at the tail-end of 2012.